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Picking the Refugees' Next Protector

Signs in Geneva and New York are that the ritual dance of diplomats is heating up in order to fill the seat of the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata. The position is regarded as the most important and influential in the humanitarian community. The nomination process is seriously flawed. Criteria for the position are not publicly known, and the process has become highly politicized.

There is an urgent need to open up the process and depoliticize it in order to ensure that the next high commissioner is selected on the basis of his or her ability to meet the challenges facing the agency.

At present, the UN secretary-general nominates the high commissioner after consultations with governments, which are considered to be the UN stakeholders. The secretary-general would be well served by widening his consultation process and opening the dialogue to include nongovernmental organizations

Given their basis in civil society and their daily work with the refugees worldwide, nongovernmental organizations ought to be recognized as major stakeholders. They would bring needed transparency and accountability.

The real questions must be asked of candidates whose names now circulate only in UN corridors. Why do they want the job? What are their hopes for the refugee agency? What is their vision for the international system to protect refugees? What is their commitment to humanitarian action and their practical experience with refugees?

The appointment of the new high commissioner comes at the end of the year. Mrs. Ogata's role has been crucial in bringing the agency back to the forefront of the international humanitarian system. The UNHCR emblem has been on television screens in almost all the major humanitarian crises of the last decade.

But the agency's image was tarnished by its unwitting involvement in assisting war criminals in Rwandese refugee camps from 1994 to 1996.

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Further major criticism came at the end of the '90s when it appeared that the agency managed response to the Kosovo refugee crisis poorly. During that crisis, many of the states that form the UNHCR's governing body bypassed the organization and asssisted the refugees directly. NATO took over, with the result that relief was seen as a political tool.

In both cases, UNHCR failed to publicly consider suspending its operations.

Western governments are introducing tighter migration control measures and new asylum laws that risk infringing on the right to seek asylum, which is the cornerstone of the international system to protect refugees. An increasing number of genuine refugees are being forced to turn to relentless smugglers whose concerns are profits and not the plight of victims compelled to move.

Such trends in the international system for the protection of refugees pose difficult questions for the UNHCR. Yet the organization often finds itself in a quandary, as many of the governments responsible for the trends are also UNHCR donors. Some of the measures that the new high commissioner will have to take will not be popular with governments that will have a strong say in the appointment process.

The new high commissioner will need to be a dynamic leader if he or she is to address the biggest challenge facing the agency: ensuring respect for and renewed commitment to the universal principles of refugee protection and the UNHCR mandate. Those who are interested in this job should come forward and present their views.

Mr. Tousignant heads the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, an alliance of humanitarian agencies. Mr. Ladekarl heads the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, a global network of more than 70 nongovernmental organizations. They contributed this comment to the Herald Tribune.[Not to be reproduced without the permission of the author.]

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A version of this article appears in print on July 5, 2000, in The International Herald Tribune. Today's Paper|Subscribe